American Gladiators "Episode 207" (2008)

Well another gimmick episode makes it way into the American Gladiators canon. As stated last week this week went for The Biggest Loser edition with all the contestants having lost a significant portion of weight. My biggest gripe with these gimmick episodes is that I'm not sure what the screening process for contenders is but it should be based on who would best be able to stand up to the gladiators. Obviously it's hilarious to see people just get dominated by the Gladiators and maybe this is why this season they don't make mention of the top contenders becoming Gladiators. I still think the contenders chosen to compete should be based on who best can stand up to the gladiators, not whether they have a sister, a husband or an eating disorder. My other complaint is the boring interviews, which seem to be getting longer (per Evan), but since we watch the show over the phone (that doesn't make us sound gay at all) we tend to talk over everything that's not an event and not really pay attention to these banter scenes.

My two favorite gladiators had a bit of an off night. First in Powerball Wolf gets blindsided by James (Blue) as he power charges him on his way to score a point. He looked a bit miffed about this at the end when James tried to be a good sport and apologize for the bum rush. Then in Hang Tough Wolf, after successfully taking down Sean (Red), again has a bit of a goof with Blue as he tries to dive on top of him but slips and ends up falling into the pool allowing Blue to take home the full ten points. Then we get to see beautiful and brawny Crush in Joust, where she is undefeated, and when she first goes up against Jessie (Red) she goes at about half strength. Now I don't know if this was because she was afraid if she hit Red too hard she would fly across the arena or if because of the height/weight differential she didn't consider her worth the time and Red is able to stay on the platform and pick up five points. This should not happen. There should be no reason why the Gladiators ever ease up on the contestants during the events and I place the blame on these gimmick episodes with their unworthy contender choices.

Sean is the perfect example of this. After going through most of the game with one point on the scoreboard he ends up at the Eliminator with a thirty-six point deficit and a loss of eighteen seconds to James. Of course he no where near comes close to catching up to James and we don't even see him finish! He jumps from the tightrope to the finish line and I think this is the first time we've never seen the losing contender finish out the Eliminator (Jessie follows suit immediately after). My theory is they told him to forget it and just jump in the pool so he would look sufficiently soaked for the end interview. Of course he adds his own waterworks and talks about how his weight loss and completion of the Eliminator, etc. Yeah, moving on. Next week doesn't look like a gimmick per se but we do have an older woman competing against a younger woman. Didn't they do that last season? Thank God the preliminaries are almost over and we can get to some serious competition between the top contenders in the semifinals.

Favorite moment: What was going on with the male contenders in this episode? Right before the Eliminator James extends his hand to Sean and Sean decides to just give him a great big hug. Then of course it ends with Sean crying into James' shoulder with yet another hug. Add that with Sean's description of the Gladiators as beefy and planning to make a bigger comeback than Mariah Carey and it makes for an awkward few moments for James who performs extraordinarily well and proves he deserves his contender spot.